The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-12-14
ENGLISH SCHOOLS.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATIONAL
AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
Efon, Harrow, Rugby and Westminster
Cost of all English Boys Education
Defects and Advantages Of the System.
In After Life.


In After Life.
The expression, "public schools" is one
which bears totally different meaning
in this country from that which it bears
in America What we Americans call
public schools are known here as ma
tionaln or board schools. These are
comparatively n modern institution, AID,
though the, .o not afford an absolutely
free education rs they do with you, yet
the charge Of them is very small, and IL l.
about certain that in a few years they
will cease 10 make any charge at all.
Free education is one OF the cries on
which the Radicals and the democratic
Tories. led by Lord Randolph Churchill,
seem TO be OF accord.
But i'm almost every way these ma
tionaln schools are as different from what
ARE known among Englisbmen rs public
schools as il is possible for one Kind %:
school Ia be- from another Indeed, the
English public school il one of those
purely natural growths which are peculiar
10 this conservative country, and there
is said to bee nothing In The least CORE
spending 10 il IN any other country 90 the
world.
The names Of Fton and Harrow, and
perhaps Rugby and Westminster are
familiar 10 most readers Of English fiction,
and the conventional description of the
young man who has received all the adj
yantages Of un Elton and Christchnrch
education and is not inircquently AN in
tolerahlc prig i'm consequence is not un-
known But. probably most people have
but "A very vague idea Ol what h. the
nature of these '~emuarics Of sound
learning. " az they are pompou-ly termed
in an old English composition. and of
what sort of life the boys lead at them
And set there is hardly any one in-titu-
ton of English life which could De- named
that has "a greater influence in moiding
the character Of the upper classes ia this
country and IT, iufucncng- through them
the course of thc history of the English
people generally than these same public
schools
To give definition OF public school
would Doe as impossible as % give def
milton OF SO many other of the anomalous
aud Illogical institutions which hlFcarisen
ia the course OF centuries. apparently 90
their own accord. in the British isles But
mon parIunCc. may hc somewhat roughly
explained If $50 say that there are certain
large boarding schools containing from
300 Co 0OO pupil. each. at which the cost
of maintaining and educating 20 boy $40
rics. mcludinl mi h.s expense. between
something Ike $500 aul $3.50 "a Near
unless the boy be- exceptionally clever ln
which cnse he can largely p4y h~ OWL
way. and which have received "a share of
favor among the landed aud professional
classes of English society sufficient tO
cnttle them % assume description
which is SD highly priced as is tlat OF Pc
public school
The custom of sending boys away from
their homes. fp Doe herded with "a crowd of
other bo,- tor ten months cut al thc
twelve. while they are between the ages
perhaps. of ID and A. and during 800 that
time depriying them of thc soiteun- effect
OF home aud feminine influence, i- one
that certainly does NOT 100 once commend
itself 60 the thoughtful mind And set 80
universal is 10 among the leisure CLASSES
and The professional classes and % large
portion Oi the wealtrior commercial Glasses
m ENGLAND that 10 IS safe CO. assert THAT 10
through delicacy on dislike of parents for
the system. any boy belonging 90 one oi
those CLASSES has not had the benefit of
such au education be- feels himself 40 "a
loss for the want Of IL pretty frequently
throughout the course of his life
An education al an university is a dis
/ tinct gnin to man but the absence ol ana
education at public school ls distinct
Joss u is difficult to say why This should
be- so There are few people who have
reached years OF discretion who would as
sert that the education offered by the
| English public schools was even as near
am approach 10 nm ideal education as the
same amount Of expenditure could Afford
| il turns out boys generally quite unable
TO converse IN any language but their
own: bows who think that the most shame
/ FIJI act they can be guilty Of is any dis
play of emotion which comes under The
lamning description of dad form boys
/ in whom originality and often even genius
/ has been as much crushed and suppressed
as these godlike qualities can he, and who
, have had their corners all knocked OF 10
make them although square originally
info the round hole prepared for them
/ I'm school life. and boys too often who es-
/ TEEN more highly success in the cricket
field than the highest prizes which can be
won in the universities the law courts on
| parliament
Thinking Ehglshmen ia after life may
| often be- heard to regret that instead Of
/ spending those six or seven years Of their
| life going through the mill Of an English
public school they had not been given
couple OF years in France, a couple OF
: years in Germany, and perhaps a couple
| Of years at an American college TO finish
up with And there can be no doubt that
/ such course Of treatment would IN all
| probability have turned out more bril-
/ liant and accomplished man than does the
usual routine education. Yet so c0nsery-
/ alive, and We may say unreasonable, a
thing is life IN England, that we believe
| that the man who in his D0yhood had been
| given such an education as has been out
/ lined above would, il his lot in after days
/ had been cast i'm England, be found FREE
! quently regretting that he had not the az
sociations. the friendships and The moral
qualities which his friends around him
/ had derived from their school days al
Eton, az Harrow, or 1T Rugby. san